Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/408

352 And fain to dwell in his own fatherland,

Proffered Eurystheus for our home-return

A great price, even to rid the earth of pests—

Or spurred by Hera's goads, or drawn by fate.

And, all the other labours now achieved,

For the last, down the gorge of Tainarus

He hath passed to Hades, to bring up to light

The hound three-headed, whence he hath not returned.

Now an old legend lives mid Kadmus' sons

That erstwhile was one Lykus Dirkê's spouse,

And of this seven-gated city king,

Ere Zethus and Amphion ruled the land,

Lords of the White Steeds, sprung from loins of Zeus.

And this man's son, who bears his father's name,—

No Theban, a Eubœan outlander,—

Slew Kreon, and having slain him rules the land,

Falling upon the state sedition-rent.

And mine affinity with Kreon knit

Is turned to mighty evil, well I wot.

For, while my son is in the earth's dark heart,

This upstart Lykus, ruler of the land,

Would fain destroy the sons of Herakles,

And slay, with blood to smother blood, his wife

And me,—if I be reckoned among men,

A useless greybeard,—lest these, grown to man,

Take vengeance for their mother's father's blood.

And I—for me he left his halls within